herbs

Onion soup is a vegetable soup made of sauteed onions and stock. Onion soup was traditionally served in poorer households and lower-class restaurants.
Onion soup is, and was, found in many countries, prepared in many different variations. What all recipes have in common are the onions and stock. From there on, anything goes……….:
Added red or white wine, beer, egg yolk, flour, cream, cheese, herbs, bread, vinegar, sugar, caramelized onions, sauteed but kept-white onions, puréed onions, sliced onion, diced onions, shallots, sausages, sherry, carrots, and probably another thousand different additions, depending on where in the world you encounter your onion soup.
Names/variations include “Pfälzer Zwiebelsuppe”, “Soupe Soubise”, “Schwaebische Zwiebelsuppe”, “Cipollata”, “Cherbah”, and countless more.
And then, of course, there is the queen of all onion soups! –
Known and loved most everywhere in the world, it is “French Onion Soup” (Soupe à l’oignon / Soupe d’oignons aux Halles/ Soupe à l’oignon gratinée)What makes this variation so special is the addition of bread and gruyere to the top of the onion soup, then it get’s some time in the oven or under the broiler until the top is a bubbly, fragrant, addictive, gooey mass of melted bread and cheese.
Each heavenly spoonful should contain some of the bread and cheese, some soup, and some onions.
Voilà, now you know why “French Onion Soup” is the best onion soup in the world 🙂>Bon Appétit ! Life is Good !>>Click here for more Onion Soup on ChefsOpinion>Click here for more Soup on ChefsOpinion>>>

No, this was not at a hawker cart in Singapore, nor was it on the side of the road in Manila, it was not in the bush in Zanzibar and certainly not on the beach in Goa. This was in Miami, at “Chez Bella”.
All the ingredients for 4 portions came to about $ 4.00, which, yes, I carefully and meticulously calculated it, comes to about a buck a portion. 🙂
In all my years living in America, I have realized that the majority of Americans say they don’t like liver or any other dish prepared with offal. However, serve them a slice of “Foie Gras” in a fancy restaurant where they are too shy to ask what they are being served, and all of a sudden you get all ahhh’s and ohhh’s. And it’s usually the same with chicken liver mousse, terrine or pate. Serve it on little canapes, put a cherry or grape on top and all of a sudden it becomes great.
Speaking of chicken liver mousse and parfait. Sadly, most of what’s being served in restaurants these days can at best be described as utter garbage. I know, because I love chicken liver mousse and have tried it a hundred times, in fact, I almost always order it if I come across it on a menu. Low-quality liver, too many distracting ingredients, overseasoned, underseasoned, grainy, broken, too long in the fridge, off-putting color, you name it.
So then, for those of my readers who share the love with me, I give you a recipe which is pretty much foolproof, as long as you use top quality liver.
Of course, you can use this recipe to make any other liver mousse. Pork liver, veal liver, duck liver, game liver. You can also, if you must, add a few additional flavors, as long as you take it easy and don’t overpower the fine taste of the liver. Armaniac, calvados, grand marnier, cognac, diced apples, garlic, herbs, sauteed shallots, orange essence, etc. You can even call it a parfait if you want to, since this recipe provides a mousse so fine, it appears to have been strained through a fine hair sieve.
All in all, a spectacular tasty dish, easy to prepare, cheap economical, and definitely better than most of the stuff you can buy ready-made or in most restaurants.>Bon Appétit ! Life is Good !>>Click here for more Liver on ChefsOpinion>
>P.S.
This amount of mousse serves 4 main courses or 8-12 snacks/appetizers>>>

at once, put into a blender together with the half&half, blend at medium speed for 1 minute, keep running at medium speed while adding 1 tsp sweet paprika and kosher salt and cayenne pepper to taste, add the butter piece by piece until very smooth; check/adjust seasoning

>>Shepherds Pie is such great comfort food.
Meat sauce, mashed potatoes, and cheese – who could resist ? 🙂
However, there is one flaw in shepherds pie which diminishes its enjoyment a bit for me – it is entirely soft in texture and usually, the sauce is a bit bland and the whole thing, therefore, often resembles baby food 😦
Let me come to the rescue with this new recipe.
Instead of mashing the potatoes to a puree, just break them up a bit into med-sized chunks. Adding the peppers and lots of onions and garlic to the meat sauce will further increase the taste and texture of the filling of the potato shells, which will result in a dish who’s taste still resembles shepherds pie but at the same time is so much more interesting and TASTY !
Overall, this “fully loaded” baked potato is without a doubt one of the tastiest incarnations of the lowly baked potato as well as the ordinary shepherd’s pie.
While I have prepared and created dozens of variations of twice baked potatoes over the years, some more, some less exotic, some over the top and some down to earth, using all kinds of additions to the stuffing, such as shrimp, smoked salmon, ham, different vegetables, cheese, yogurt, herbs, etc, etc., the ones I prepared today are the very best of the best 🙂
Although very simple and easy to prepare, the texture, taste, and looks are just perfect and go to show that uncomplicated food, if done right, can take the price over complicated and elaborate any time ……..>Bon Appétit ! Life is Good !>>Click here for more Twice-Baked Potatoes on ChefsOpinion>>>

>>This dish is one of my “go to” dishes when contemplating endlessly without resolve in my mind what I will cook for the next meal.
Although I am a sucker for real curry, pasta sautéed in curry powder and “stuff” is something I can eat happily any time of the day, as often as twice a week.
Usually the basic ingredients are items I have always stocked in my fridge, freezer or cupboard:
Pasta, beef, shrimp or chicken, any type of vegetables, curry powder, a bit of kecap manis, chili paste, soy sauce or maggi seasoning, onion or scallion, eggs and herbs.
An added bonus to this dish is that it reheat’s wonderfully. (Some say it’s even better when re-heated) 🙂>Bon Appétit ! Life is Good !>>Click here for more Pasta on ChefsOpinion>Click here for more Curry on ChefsOpinion>>>

Curried Pasta With Shrimp, Mushrooms, Veggies And Egg (Sunshine On A Plate)

> >Pangrattato you ask ? Don’ t worry, we are just talking about sautéed breadcrumbs here, nothing complicated, but oh so good.
Most cuisines which use pasta also use pangrattato in one form or another : bread crumbs sautéed in butter, in olive oil, in schmalz or just dry toasted, seasoned with anything from salt and pepper to garlic, herbs cheese, nutmeg or whatever else is traditional in your area of the woods or whatever tickles your fancy. The main task for the bread crumbs is to add texture to your pasta. And if you can add flavor on top of that, so much the better.
Sometimes, all I want for a great meal is just perfectly cooked pasta with lot’s of tasty pangrattato and a bit of grated cheese on top. Perfection for pasta lovers, right there. But today, I made a dish with even more pizzazz by adding sautéed shrimp and scallops in herb butter to an already sexy dish. Aaahhhh, Life is Good 🙂>Bon Appetit ! Long Live Good Food !> >

Scallops & Shrimp In Herb and Garlic Butter, With Penne Rigate And Pangrattato

>

Scallops & Shrimp In Herb and Garlic Butter, With Penne Rigate And Pangrattato

Bad cholesterol, depression, high blood pressure; these are all conditions that often prompt a trip to the pharmacy. But now, physicians are administering a different treatment entirely: produce. Doctors at select clinics across the country are writing some obese patients “prescriptions” for fruits and vegetables.
The Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program provides daily $1 subsidies to buy produce at local farmers markets. FVRx, as it is also known, is funded throughWholesome Wave, a non-profit organization which operates from private donations. Each member of a family gets the $1 prescription so, for example, a family of five would end up getting $35 per week to spend on fresh fruits and vegetables.
Janet Lopez is a cashier at a sporting goods store and lives in Washington, D.C. with her two children, brother and mother. She and her family are part of the Unity Health Care clinic’s prescription program and have been buying the subsidized produce since May. She said they all have been eating more fruits and vegetables because of the program.
“It is an encouragement because now I actually see that my kids love all of this stuff and before I couldn’t get it because it wasn’t cheap. Not only that but I also didn’t know how healthy it actually is,” Lopez said.
In addition to subsidies, FVRx has patients meet with their physicians to check up on their health including their height, weight, blood pressure and body mass index. The program also offers exercise and cooking classes.
“A lot of kids are picking up on how to eat vegetables and realizing they’re not actually yucky, it’s actually, ‘Oh, it’s delicious,’ because they’re learning to cook it themselves,” Lopez said.
And organizers said they use this family oriented approach because even if the whole family isn’t obese, they don’t want one member of the family eating fruits and vegetables while the rest just keep eating junk.